Fantasy Football Week 12: Surprising Players Who Are Sure to Shine

There are those players whom you know will bring a steady stream of points no matter the matchup. Drew Brees, Arian Foster, A.J. Green and Jimmy Graham all come to mind this season.

But to truly dominate your league, you need to constantly be on top of which players are in good form but aren't necessarily household names amongst owners, or perhaps are outplaying poor reputations in fantasy circles.

If you can find a few of those players throughout the season and ride their hot streaks, you're that much more likely to find yourself in the running for a fantasy championship. Let's take a look at a few players who might surprise you with huge performances this week.

Michael Crabtree, WR, San Francisco 49ers

Don't look now, but Crabtree is fast making himself a viable WR2 for fantasy owners. In the past three games, he's caught 13 passes for 173 yards and four touchdowns. Suddenly, it appears Crabtree is starting to live up to expectations.

Oh, and he has a great matchup against the New Orleans Saints defense, which is allowing 29.6 fantasy points to opposing wide receivers per week in standard-scoring leagues (32nd in NFL) and 305 passing yards per game (31st).

Crabtree is going to blow up this week, and I don't care if its Alex Smith or Colin Kaepernick throwing him passes. Make sure he is in your lineups this week.

Marcel Reece, RB, Oakland Raiders

I tried to tell you that Marcel Reece was an excellent player to add last week. If you listened, you were rewarded to 19.3 fantasy points in standard-scoring leagues, marking the third straight week Mr. Reece has managed double-digit points for his owners.

This week, he faces a Cincinnati Bengals team that allows 19.7 fantasy points to opposing running backs, 25th in the NFL. And while it remains a very good possibility that both Darren McFadden and Mike Goodson will miss another week to injury, Reece has become so valuable in the passing game he still has some value even if they return.

Still, he's obviously only worth starting for fantasy owners if he starts at tailback for the Raiders. If he gets the majority of the carries this week, he'll have an excellent game.

Very quietly, Mr. Romo has become a steady stream of fantasy points for owners in recent play. He now has 14 or more fantasy points in six straight games, with eight touchdowns and five interceptions in that span.

He also has a really tasty matchup against the Washington Redskins on Thanksgiving, a team allowing 18.2 fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks per week (28th in the NFL) and 289.2 passing yards per game (29th).

And with DeMarco Murray and Felix Jones banged up, I would expect this team to pass, pass and pass some more. With Robert Griffin III running the show for the Redskins, this one could turn into a shootout. That bodes very well for Romo owners.